Everyone's favourite bunny 🐰 Gwen Guide

[Xaldarian]

I am having a lot of fun with Gwen.

Team Gwen FTW!!!

I thought I’d share my build and experiences with her.
Start with wp blade+swift shooter.
Rush TB then Spellsword.
Finish SSw then get a BP.

You have high burst from TB and piercing
Energy to spam your skills and high damage and CD from SSw
Attack speed and scalable damage from Breaking Point. I often have 14+stacks mid fight while not dying.

These 3 items are your core.

You get slumbering husk vs bursts to survive a dive on you.

I add a TM lategame for extra damage.

Your skills and this build synergize extremely well.

Perk:
You have 40%bonus wp damage every few seconds this is a great source of reliable damage.

Other contributors reccomend tb Ssw BP and then SB. All 4 items work with your perk, which apparently cannot crit so it needs raw damage. @mq003at recommend this he is a vainglorious player.

A Skill:
A conic burst of Aoe damage that reveals hidden enemies and can be used for poking together with your perk+TB. Combine A+basic attack to melt someones face off or finish a low hp target.
When you hit multiple targets with your A you get a lot of BP stacks lategame. You also have a scalable slow up to 65%.

B skill
Skedaddle is your get out of jail free card. Stuns and CC mean jackshit to you and you get a speed boost when activating it. an out of combat speed boost that allows you to gank other lanes more easily or escape scary situations. Chaining A slow with Skedaddle speedboost makes chasing enemies extremely easy. Especially when you also have your Ult available.

C Skill:
The ultimate skill, a card/firecracker with extremely long range. It has sick damage and will stun the target it hits. This is a long range skillshot that can be dodged but when it hits it is a game changer.

My advise for the ult is to use it when a melee is charging you or an ally head on so you can both stop the enemy attack/skill and go from hunted to hunter.
When an enemy decides to run away from you they usually run in a straight line to distance themselves from you. This gives you an excellent shot at hitting them with your Ult outside of attack range. Coming closer and then based on the distance left use Skedaddle to come into range or your A to slow them down or vice versa.

I finish with journey boots.

This is how I play WP Gwen and I am becoming more and more proficient with her. I escape 3 man dives on me and can attack a group of enemies head on while they have a hard time locking me down. Meanwhile I am stacking BP stacks and my next empowered hit with TB+my perk will hit like a truck.

Ultra lategame you can sell tb for another TM.

5/5 wins on the Rise so far average stats are 9/3/9.

CP gwen is all about poking too but I won’t write a guide on her now because she is weaker than WP atm.

Build would be AS SF BM De/SG/FB with SH and JB

But I don’t play her atm

[Odsfish]

Gwen is one of the heroes I haven’t almost at all, but she seems so solid on the Rise, so have started dabbling. This is an excellent break down. I now have my weekend work set out for me! Thank you

[Moose]

Why BP? If you’re going the TB TM / min def route, hopefully you won’t need to stick around to build stacks. I get your A will build them late game, but try out double TM. So much fun. Just ult/basic/A/basic/dead I personally never thought of SS either, but I’m still catching on to relatively new items.

[Xaldarian]

I need the attack speed as a safety measure so that I can hit fast enough to whack an enemy before he hits me.

BP makes me not just a poker. If a fight lasts a bit longer and I keep moving in and out I will get immense stacks.

[Xaldarian]

I updated the OP with a great BP game where I had many many stacks in every fight. Core team fights I get up to 18 stacks.

[Moose]

@Xaldarian Here’s my most recent Gwen game -

Rotation - wave clear, hit carry, your treant/wp buff, wave clear, hit carry, enemy treant/river shop, hide in enemy brush, TB crit carry, wave clear, rinse repeat.

As long as enemy jungler isn’t aggressive, this is the easiest rotation. In this particular instance, I was 2v1 a WP Gwen (higher rank, but poorer Gwen player) and a Lance that barely moved from lane (bottom lane). It must be noted that my 1 death didn’t come until Lance finally caught me with Impale, with my B on CD, and enemy Taka decided to show up to help Gwen (RIP). Possibly it’s our play styles, but I find another TM to be more impactful.

As for SS, you never clarified why over a SB

[Xaldarian]

How much damage did you have?..
I switch out SB for SSw.
TM for BP. What is your max damage per hit?

Ssw helps take your A off cd faster. More stuns more Skedaddle saves and never any energy problems. I believe the extra A and C uptime is worth the somewhat lower dmg. Then there is also the big energy gain for a somewhat energy hungry hero.

[Moose]

52k

My team had 45 (wp Adagio), 38 (CP Taka), 21 (CP Celese), 20 (Supp Lyra)

That makes sense with the SSw. I’ll have to check on my max damage a hit. With a crit + TB + infusion + buff, I very easily saw 900 but I’ll check what I max at

[Xaldarian]

It is most likely a play style thing. I hover at the edge of battle continuously poking the entire enemy team when I get into range. If someone dives me they eat my ultimate and I skedaddle out+basic attack. If they then follow me still I have JB and BP stacks up making trading hits with me very very unpleasant.

I used to play raw damage single hit like you too. But in drawn out fights you lose damage potential because while your damage per hit is very high you have no scalability nor high dps. My DPS is probably higher and my damage per hit will outpace you mid fight.

[Moose]

All of my best heroes (with the exception of Lyra and Reim) are poke-based, high damage, and elusive - CP Vox, CP Taka, and CP BF - this iteration of Gwen is trying to make her more of the archetype of hero I play well with. I’m less effective with heroes such as Krul and Rona (but for some reason wreck with Reim?)

[Xaldarian]

Reim BF Gwen are favourites of mine too. How about Sam?

[Moose]

I just started really learning Sam. I do pretty well when using one of the suggested builds, but not so well when I don’t (still messing with mix of damage and lifesteal - like I said, I rarely have CP lifesteal). However, Sam mid 5v5 is so much fun.

[Xaldarian]

I used him top the other match he was rather strong. He and gwen share their poking nature.

[Moose]

Build suggestion? I just build like CP Vox

[Yui]

Gwen OP?

Granted, 5v5 matchmaker is pretty messed up rn, so stats are inflated

[mq003at]

@Xaldarian

boe+wp blade

I disagree, I prefer starting with WP blade and the shooter first since it ensures your cs and poking. You outmatch every melee carry and most of WP carry so why buying BoE? If you play against a Saw, BoE may be suitable, but not for others.

@Xaldarian

Finish SSw then get a BP.

Remember, when building first 3 core items, if the situation is not good for your team, you can buy 800 gold shield/armor/a reflex block in the middle. This will keep you alive in combat.

@Xaldarian

I add a TM lategame for extra damage

I never use TM because the perk can’t be critted. I prefer my last item is Sorrowblade, so 1 perk = 5 stack BP. Attacking 3 times with my perk = 15 stacks. Ez maff

Remember, SS not giving you much damage as Sorrowblade, however, it allows you to fire A more frequently and use ultimate more frequently. You have more chances to be alived in combat.

Below is my previous ranked 3v3

[Xaldarian]

Thanks for contributing. TM does work with your tb hits and your BP stacking. TM now has higher base damage.

I have tried wp blade and shooter but I prefer double wp blade and then the heal camp+WP buff.

My first feeling was that I needed boe for sustain. It also adds nice damage trading when 1v1ing someone.

Raw damage or damage+attack speed allows for better csing true.

[mq003at]

There were a time when I used to buy double wp blade. But then I realize I don’t need the extra 15 damage, what i need is more attack speed for farming (because she can’t use her skills to farm). Moreover, the damage output you deal when your jungler gank your lane is much better than double WP. Double WP Blade, in that situation, just give a little more damage burst.

You don’t need sustain when using Gwen. Most of the situations are: I have enough money to buy TS/I am fully run out of health/ I have forced enemy laner to recall. BoE just nerf your damage with its crappy healing. Well, if you fight against Saw and you need suistain, go for it, but it won’t worth your gold.

[Xaldarian]

I updated the OP with more info and some corrections.

[Xaldarian]

How would you feel about tb+Ssw+BP+Ssw+SH+JB/HC?
I have tried double ssw in the past with mixed results.